I’m feeling rather naked, name-wise, since coming back from Wars.  Something about only putting down one syllable on signup sheets where everybody else has at least two names, and the teacher has a stringful (not that I have any title envy whatsoever, because I don’t quite get that part of Society life).

Yes, I know lots of people play SCA for years without choosing a name.  And I thought I was doing pretty well in constructing my backstory.  But (as should be apparent) I’m generally not satisfied with stopping early.  Besides that, I can’t register a device until my name is set.

"Margareta" is set by "Greet."  And I love "Greet."  So it’s "_______ Margareta, called ‘Greet’", because Hungarian grammar places bynames in front of given names.  Either I need a placename or a kindredname for my second, er, first name.

If I’m going to use the story (which I like) that I left Hungary because I had few desirable marriage prospects as a daughter of the rural kindred, then I should figure out a kindred name.  Bother – that’s going to be harder.  Back to Realm of St. Stephen.

(Why I like the daughter-with-no-brothers story: I have only one sister in mundane life; I’d probably be a different person if I’d had brothers.  Also it legitimizes some of the ‘substitute the daughter for a son’ activities, like swordsmanship, and fancy education/aesthetics imported from Italy that I want to learn.)

This site leads me to believe that I should push myself a bit further on in history, into the Humanist reign of Matthias, for the strong relationship to Italy (which I know a bit about from school) and if I wait as long as 1526, I can flee before the Turk invasion.  And be clearer about both the fencing and the Working Woman’s Dress.  Maybe that’s the way to go, since Mary of Hapsburg’s dress is 1520, which is still cut the way I like, and there’s other laced kirtles around at that time… but this still doesn’t get me a name.

Walraven van Nijmegen likes occupational bynames, so I thought about some of those.  I’m not sure how to turn "spinner/spinster" into a name, though, because it might need a case ending.  The word translates as "aggszûz, hajadon, vénlány, vénkisasszony", but I don’t know which to choose.  I think I may have to find that woman at the library who speaks to help me out.  "Weaver" is "takacs", which I’m almost certain would be Takacsi.  "Tailor" is "Szabo", which is the surname of the author of a fencing book I want, and of a penpal that I had in highschool.  So I might just use that one, since pronouncability is important to me.

"Szabo Margareta, called ‘Greet’".  Hmmm.  I’ll try that around a bit.